> Before the dreary season hits, anyone have a ray of color in
> the garden?
Hi, Jim.
Crocus cartwrightianus, the wild ancestor of saffron, keeps pushing up
through the fallen leaves, but that is not surprising here in wet Zone 6.
Other Colchicum are long gone, but 'Poseidon' has been in bloom
here since mid-September despite rain, wind and hail. After each storm I
take another photograph
in gratitude and amazement. Less gorgeous than my favorite "macro"
Colchicum, bivonae 'Apollo' , 'Poseidon' is nonetheless handsome, and for
doughtiness it's hard to beat.
All our arums and most of our arisaemas have laid their seeds on the ground
by now, but scarlet cobs still dangle from Arisaema ciliatum var. liubaense;
A. taiwanense is still ripening -- may lose its race with frost *again*.
Arum pictum and A. concinnatum x cyrenaicum have been up for a month or so
in the understorey, quietly denying entropy.
Below ground, of course, until freeze-up, the bulb world is a riot of
rooting, fattening and setting flower buds. Wonderful to see in the mind's
eye.
Paige Woodward
http://www.hillkeep.ca/
paige@hillkeep.ca